Transit advocates want swift adoption of a City Council plan to expand low-income New Yorkers’ access to half-off transit rides before an expected 15-cent hike in the base bus and subway fare kicks in later this year.
The plan, which would expand the Fair Fares program to New Yorkers with incomes roughly twice the federal poverty line, would make an estimated 1.7 million working-age people eligible for the assistance.
Under an expanded Fair Fares program, a family of four making up to $60,000 — or an individual making up to $29,160 — would be able to ride for half price.
Currently, a family of four would have to make less than $30,000 to be eligible for the discount.
“Expanding Fair Fares now would mean that low-income New Yorkers would never even feel the sting of a fare hike that takes effect on Labor Day,” Riders Alliance spokesman Danny Pearlstein said.
The push comes as the MTA announced proposed fare increases Monday, including bumping the base price of a subway or bus ride from $2.75 up to $2.90.
“We had done polling showing a quarter of New Yorkers [making twice the poverty line] struggled with the fare,” David Jones, president of the Community Service Society of New York and an MTA board member, told the Daily News. “If the fare goes up — as it probably will — it will increase the strain.
“I’ve been working on this for seven years,” said Jones, a vocal advocate of the Fair Fares program. “We think [expanding eligibility] is absolutely one of the most decent things the city can do.”
An expansion of Fair Fares eligibility was absent from Mayor Adams’ executive budget proposal, which included cuts for other social services. The proposed increase is still being negotiated between the mayor’s office and City Council, ahead of a July 1 budget deadline.
Mayor Adams’ office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday, but earlier this month an Adams spokesperson told the Daily News that ensuring those who are…
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